Get the marketing lowdown

Les Jones will be touring the UK in September, delivering a number of one-day marketing masterclasses entitled How to market your dental practice, focusing solely on what dental practices could be doing to enhance their marketing activities to ultimately increase their practice profits.

Les’ workshop will dust off your marketing cobwebs, taking you through the entire marketing journey, from setting a sensible marketing budget and creating key performance indicators (KPIs), through to implementing a lucrative marketing strategy and developing a fool-proof measurement culture within the practice. He’ll talk in depth about dental websites, marketing collateral, patient incentives and referral strategies, with a focus firmly placed on giving you marketing ideas that you can implement immediately, without breaking the bank.

As a well-known speaker in the dental industry, Les has headlined at several events over the last 12 months, taking to the stage at the BDIA Dental Showcase, The Dentistry Show and Business of Dentistry Event’s Practice Management Conferences.

What to expect

We caught up with Les to find out more about the tour…

Practice Plan (PP): What can people expect from the day?

Les: My workshop will give delegates practical advice on ways in which they can improve their marketing – advice that has come about following successful implementation from other practices, for relatively little cost. I will develop your understanding of the more strategic elements of marketing, including segmenting your customer base, creating your marketing proposition and setting up a simple measurement system within your practice. I will focus on practical advice that can be implemented immediately, not blue-sky theories that you’ll have to plan years in advance.

PP: You’re not a dentist, why should practices trust your advice?

Les: I’ve worked in design, marketing and communications for over 30 years and in a previous life was the lead facilitator and presenter on many regional and national innovation and business improvement programmes. And (how time flies) I’ve now been working in the dental industry for over five years, in that time I’ve learned a lot about the key issues that dental practices face on a day-to-day basis.

PP: What differentiates your marketing advice from the rest?

Les: Simplicity. I’m not into complicated strategies that are difficult to implement and maintain. My advice is about doing the simple things differently and better than your competitors. Little cost, big returns.

PP: What are you looking forward to most about the tour?

Les: Having the opportunity to explain the entire marketing journey to practices over the course of a full day – this will allow me to, not only speak generally about marketing, but to drill down into the concerns faced by our practices attending and identify ways in which they can overcome these barriers.

PP: Where and when are you presenting?

Les: 10 September – Birmingham

12 September – Manchester

25 September – Cardiff

30 September – Southampton

See you there.

If you’d like to find out more about Les’ workshops, or to book your places today, visit www.practiceplan.co.uk/events or call 01691 684135.

Les Jones is marketing director at Practice Plan. He has worked as a professional graphic designer, photographer, writer and business speaker for more than 30 years, and in the dental industry for the past five. Les is also editor of The Business of Dentistry magazine.